All about me ♪♫

I'm Ambur, and I'm addicted to books, tea, superheroes, and TV! I'm extremely passionate about my fandoms—right now I'm currently obsessed with Game of Thrones, Outlander, Nightwing/Dick Grayson, Captain America, and I strongly identify with my Hogwarts house: Hufflepuff. When it comes to books, I'm a sucker for young adult books, and romance novels, especially of the sports or historical variety!

Choose a character from the book you're currently reading and answer the following questions in the comments of this post.

•What historical figure do you think they could have been in a past life?

•Why did you choose this figure?
•What similarities do the two share?

•Be sure to tell us the book and the character you chose.

The book I'm currently reading is Night Star by Alyson Noel. Which, coincidentally enough is filled with past lives.

I think for the character, I'm going to choose Sabine just because we don't know of any of her past lives, Ever would've been a more obvious choice, but I think that's cheating. :P

I think in a past life Sabine was someone who was perhaps taken in by the mystical, so I'm going to say she was Alexandra Romanov of Russia. Since she was royal she would know the workings of the law, which being a lawyer Sabine, is extremely interested in. She also does not approve of or 'believe' in psychic abilities or other spiritual stuff like that, which would suggest that she's been spurned by it in the past...or past life.

If you're doing the Read-a-thon, don't miss out on the mini-challenges, the link to this one is at the top of this post :)

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The Read-A-Thon starts tomorrow, so I'm posting a list of some of the books I'd like to read over the next few days.

So here are the book's I'd like to read:

-Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer

-Night Star by Alyson Noel

-Torment by Lauren Kate

I might read more, but if I do I'll add it on this post later. :)

You can still sign up for the Read-A-Thon, and you can link your post to theirs if you go to The Bookish Type's Reading List post HERE.

Before I finish this post I'd like to recommend an awesome blog that I found a week or so ago. I wouldn't be surprised if you'd already heard of it, it's hilarious. The blog's called Hyperbole and a Half. You should totally check it out if you haven't read her posts already! You will not be disappointed. :)

Monday, December 27, 2010

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?, is a bookish meme hosted by One Person's Journey Through a World of Books, where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It’s a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list. So hop on over to Journey and join in...and leave a comment here so I can check out what you are reading.

Books I Read Last Week:

Matched by Ally Condie

I asked my best friend to get me Matched for Christmas and I am so glad that I did. I loved this book, it was amazing and I devoured it as soon as I had my hands on it. I started my Christmas vacation by reading this book, and it was well worth the wait. I'm a huge fan of the dystopian genre, and Matched was another amazing dystopian read. It wasn't about fighting, like the Hunger Games, but it still kept me on my toes. I especially loved reading little tidbits of information that would have been from our time, and how the newest generation in Matched viewed it all. Ally did a fantastic job molding their futuristic world around ours as if we were already in their past. If you somehow haven't read this one or added it to your to-read list yet, you defintiely need to. :)

Being Jamie Baker by Kelly Oram

I've been wanting to read this one ever since I read the excerpt on Kelly Oram's website a couple months ago, but I resisted buying it on the Book Depository because Christmas was so close and I didn't want to spend all my money on myself and before it was even here, so I waited...and I got extremely lucky and won it from Kelly Oram herself, she gave away a copy every week in November. I was so excited when I won it, and it came in the mail while I was at school, then I came home for Christmas holidays and tore into this baby! It was freaking awesome! I loved every minute, and I think it's gonna be my first reread of the New Year! If you've been thinking about reading this book, I wholeheartedly suggest you get to it! It was adorable, funny, and just pure awesome-sauce....and I will admit I LOVE the pink cover (yes, I love it so much that I used all caps to express my love :P). Anyways, you should totally read this book :D

Misguided Angel by Melissa de la Cruz

My parents gave me this one for Christmas and I pounced on it. The only thing I would've loved more of, was more Schulyer and Jack, but I guess I'll have to buy Bloody Valentine, a Blue Bloods novella, to get more of them for the time being, it comes out on Tuesday...not sure how I'll convince my parents to take me to a bookstore though because I already have a tonne of books to read. I really liked Misguided Angel though, it definitely added a whole new element to the Blue Bloods universe, and I was not expecting it at all, can't wait to see how it all unfolds. The Blue Bloods series is definitely a different type of vampire story and it's one I recommend to just about anybody, even my best friend who doesn't like vampires really likes this series.

Tales of the Otherworld by Kelley Armstrong

I absolutely love Kelley Armstrong's Otherworld series, and I'm including her YA series in that too, even if they're not really directly connected. I love Kelley's short stories, she puts them online usually first, but she has also published two anthologies of her novellas, and she gives the proceeds to charity, which is pretty awesome in my opinion. :) I am a sucker for any novella's revolving around Clay and the Pack, but especially ones with Clay and Elena. Tales of the Otherworld has the story Beginnings, a prequel to Bitten, which is the story of how Clay and Elena met and their romance before Bitten. It was definitely my favourite of the short stories, and if you're an Otherworld fan I definitely recommend getting yourself a copy or at least borrowing it from the library. I also loved the story of Eve and Kristof's romance, which is a new story that's only been released in this anthology, it was freaking adorable, which isn't an adjective I expected to use to describe Kris and Eve's romance. ;) Anyways, it's a fantastic anthology :)

Reading Now:

One Land, One King by Y.S. Hassan

Yes, I know. I'm still not finished this book. *hangs head in shame* In my defence, I got bunch of awesome books for Christmas and in the mail this week, so I was a little bit distracted by them. Which is the main reason why I used to never read more than one book at a time. Even though this book's been pushed to the side, I still don't think it's a bad book or anything, the language just requires more attention and so I usually go for the book that I know I'll finish faster.

Zombie Blondes by Brian James

So far this book has not really piqued my interest, but I have yet to figure out if the blondes are really zombies, once I know that my attention will most likely be completely attracted. I'm hoping it happens soon.

Books I Want to Read This Week:

Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong

I'm gonna be honest, this book was $29.99 in Canadian, so I was hoping to wait for the paperback, or Christmas. Christmas came sooner, thank you parents. I love my parents, even though sometimes my mom asks me things like, "Don't you think you already have enough books?" to which I reply, "Ya, but I wanna read that one" or "But, I haven't gotten any new ones in while, so I really don't have that many." So, I'm getting off topic, I really want to read this one. It's Savannah's first book as narrator. :)

Night Star by Alyson Noel

I asked my brother to get me this one, and he even used the Book Depository, I'm so proud! :) I'm hoping Night Star won't be so depressing for Ever and Damon, Dark Flame was just one big brooding fest and dark desires. Hopefully it starts to look up for them.

Torment by Lauren Kate

As you can see, most of my Christmas list were books. I can't wait to read Torment. :)

Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex by Eoin Colfer

I've already been rambling on and on in this post, so I'm trying to keep it simpler. And just like the other books I plan on reading this week, I got this one for Christmas and I'm definitely anxious to read it. Artemis Fowl is so freaking smart, sometimes he makes me feel like I can't even read...ok not really, but he is pure awesome, even though he's kind of an evil mastermind, but not always, if you've read some of the newer books in the series.

MERRY CHRISTMAS/HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE!!! :D

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas or if you don't celebrate Christmas, a really awesome day off.

PS. Sorry for the humongous case of rambling in this post, but I guess I was feeling chatty. I'm posting my Teaser Tuesday tomorrow, but I'll post a random kind of post soon and it will most likely be super duper rambly...so if you're afraid of rambling, I am sorry in advance, and once again, Happy Holidays everyone! :)

Monday, December 20, 2010

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?, is a bookish meme hosted by One Person's Journey Through a World of Books, where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It’s a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list. So hop on over to Journey and join in...and leave a comment here so I can check out what you are reading.

Books I Read Last Week:

The Candidates by Inara Scott

I loved The Candidates, it was a very quick read and I really enjoyed the story. I don't want to ruin the mystery of this book by talking too much about it because I liked figuring things out as I read it, but I thought it was an awesome story, and I can't wait to read the next one. I'm also seriously smitten with the main character's name, Dancia, it's so original and pretty. :)

The Julian Game by Adele Griffin

I don't know if you can tell by reading my blog, but I'm one of the unfortunate people with a slight Facebook addiction. I don't have to be doing anything on there, but I always am. Anyways, The Julian Game mentions Facebook a lot, and I won't lie, I totally loved that. This book was pretty short, so it was a really quick read, which was nice to read between study breaks. This book touched on serious topics, while remaining pretty carefree. It finished on a great not, and sends out a great message. It's definitely a story worth reading.

Return to Paradise by Simone Elkeles

I read Leaving Paradise a while ago, I can't quite remember just how long ago, and I really enjoyed it. Caleb and Maggie have such an intricate past and their lives seem to be interwoven. I love their banter and it only got better in Return to paradise. I devoured this baby in a few hours, that's how anxious I was to read it...and during exam time that's really saying something. This was my destressing time. ;) lol

Freefall by Mindi Scott

I loved Freefall. I didn't realize it would be such a deep read, but considering the subject matter, I'm really not sure why I was surprised. The characters were awesome in this story, you had the outrageous ones, and some that fit into major stereotypes. Then you had characters like Rosetta who kept you on your toes. I loved how the main character, Seth, seemed to be turning his life around and that he finally realized the choices he was making were his own and that only he was to blame for the consequences. Awesome story, you should definitely check it out. :)

Personal Demons by Lisa Desrochers

I've heard lots of things about this book, definitely mixed things. Going in I wasn't sure which boy I'd prefer either, Gabe or Luc, but since most people seem to love Luc, I decided before I read it I'd be Team Gabe. ;) And for the most part I think I still am, I did really like Luc though, but where Luc was all steam and sex appeal and all that jazz, Gabe was sweet and calming and so dang perfect. I'm a sucker for those angel boys, so I have to say, while Luc is a sexy beast and getting sweeter by the minute, I'm still more of a Gabe fan. :)

(*Note: I took out Return to Paradise, Freefall, and Personal Demons all from the library, and since the Edmonton libraries are about an hour from my house [in my hometown] and the return date for these books was before my holidays end, I decided I must read them super fast before my holidays after exams officially start. Which is why I was speed reading up a storm this weekend and finished these three before it was even over...so I still had time to study. I also only have English and Comparative Literature left so I just have to read some short stories and read over my notes, my intense Russian test is over already thankfully. :D)

And I might be writing some reviews for these ones soon, but I'm not promising anything yet. :P

Reading Now:

One Land, One King by Y.S. Hassan

I'm still reading this one, and I like it so far, it's definitely not a quick read though, so after tomorrow, my last exam (woo hooo!!!), I'm going to pick it up again, but I'm waiting until then. :)

Books I Want to Read This Week:

Zombie Blondes by Brian James

So, I didn't get to Zombie Blondes yet, but I'm going to pick it up right away. Finals are almost finished afterall. :D

The Mind Readers by Lori Brighton

Since exams will be finished this week, I'll have tim for The Mind Readers too. Lori sent me an email asking if I'd read it, and I can't wait to dig into it. :)

Saturday, December 18, 2010

The Bookish Type and Book Savvy are hosting a Read-a-thon! I had an awesome time on the last one I participated in, so I decided to sign up for their Out With A Bang Read-A-Thon! :D

It will run from December 29th to the 31st, and you read as many books as you can in that time. They suggest that you use it to finish off the debuts for the Debut Author Challenge, but you can read whatever you want. I think I'm just going to wing it and read whatever I have at hand...and maybe I'll read some books I get for Christmas too. ;)

If you participate, there are also going to be giveaways going on during the Readathon, and who doesn't love giveaways! As an added bonus, they said that lots of the swag and books being given away will be signed.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

I've already shared my love for the City of Bones, so now it's City of Ashes' turn. :)

This book definitely has more dark parts than City of Bones, and it's packed full of action. After the revelation at the end of City of Bones, which I'm sure anyone who's read knows what I'm talking about...Clary and her friends have even more challenges up ahead.

In City of Ashes, There is a transformation, more magic, more demons, a prison escape, and an authoritative figure hungry for vengeance. I'm trying not to give away anything to big from this book, but I'm hoping I've peaked your interest with those snippets right there.

I'm a huge Jace fan...if that wasn't already blatantly obvious from my review of the City of Bones, but boy does that boy go through some classic teenage angst here. His life is a never ending woah is me fest in here, but to be honest, homework seems easy and not worth complaining about compared to what he goes through.

We see tonnes more of Simon, which is always awesome...especially when Jace is also around. Jace and Simon together equals written gold, they're hilarious...and LEGEN....wait for it...DARY (note: yes I do watch How I Met Your Mother, how can you tell? :P). Simon definitely faces his own challenges in City of Ashes, and he grows a lot as a character...and I'm not talking about getting his first chest hair, although that might have happened, but we don't know about it if it did....

Magnus Bane's role just gets bigger and bigger in this series, and honestly, I don't think anyone's complaining there. Magnus is an amazing character...even without all his magic and immortality, he'd still be awesome. He's definitely one of my favourite characters in the series, I mean how can you not love someone who is that obsessed with glitter?!

I don't want to say too much about Clary because she's kind of centred around the whole cliffhanger from City of Bones, but I will say that she definitely comes into her talents and skills in this one. I think Clary's an amazing character personally. I know some people think she's a weak heroine, but I think she's one of the strongest. She never gives up and waits for someone else to save her, and she's always trying to get involved with the action. Some might call her reckless, but I think she just thinks with her heart rather than her head sometimes, and I just can't fault someone for that. It's amazing to see a character who has that much love, and honestly, isn't that why we all loved Harry Potter so much?

We also meet a new character, Maia. I liked Maia, but again, I don't want to give too much away. She's biracial, and also a downworlder, so she kind of brings in other races, both from the Shadow World and from the ordinary everyday world. She's definitely a fierce character and you do not want to make her angry.

Izzy and Alec are also getting bigger and more definied as characters in City of Ashes. We get to know both of them a little better, and Izzy has one of my absolute favourite lines from this book.

Here's a fanmade banner with that line:

I found this on DeviantArt. I can't remember the artist's name. If you're the artist or know who it is, I'd loved to know. Thanks. :)

﻿Ok, so obviously, you can see that the characters are becoming more developed, which definitely made me grow more attached to the series. I absolutely loved City of Bones, and City of Ashes too. It has the whole forbidden thing going on, and it is an amazing action-packed story. In fact, I recommended and borrowed this series to one of my guy friends and he loved it....which was awesome because it finally gave me someone to talk about the series with. He liked Simon more than Jace though...go figure. :P

Anyways, I think that The Mortal Instruments series in general, is great for boys and girls. It's one of those series that seems to not have gender, sexual or racial boundaries...it doesn't have age restrictions either. I'm sure I'll still love this series years from now. Cassandra Clare has done an amazing job at making the series reachable to all. She has romance, action, and even religious tales woven within the story. One of the biggest things I love about this series are the quotes from Paradise Lost, Dante's Inferno and other classic works. I love how Cassie ties the quotes into the chapters and the different sections of the stories. They even inspired the series, and one day I'll finally read the classics...and maybe I'll finally catch all the references within the series.

I don't know about anyone else, but this is getting me excited, less than four months until it comes out, and if you didn't notice, the countdowns until CoFA even changed to this cover! It looks awesome! :)

Monday, December 13, 2010

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?, is a bookish meme hosted by One Person's Journey Through a World of Books, where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It’s a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list. So hop on over to Journey and join in...and leave a comment here so I can check out what you are reading.

Books I Read Last Week:

Ice by Sarah Beth Durst

So this book definitely picked up for me, and I ended up really liking it. The one thing I wasn't a big fan of was the huge time gaps, but I understood why they were necessary. I've never heard the original story that this book was based off of, but it sounds like it would be a very interesting origin story.

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

I loved The Replacement, and I posted my review for it shortly after finishing it, you can my my review HERE. I thought this story was just amazing, and I am so glad that I picked it up this week. :)

Gimme A Call by Sarah Mlynowski

Well this book has been sitting on my shelves for quite some time, I won it on Free Book Friday Teens!. While it wasn't my favourite book ever, I did enjoy reading it. Gimme A Call had a whole butterfly effect and Back to the Future thing going on which were pretty interesting. The whole premise for this book was that Devi's boyfriend Bryan broke up with her and she'd spent the four years of high school with him being the center of her life. She'd ignored and lost her friends and she even lost the close relationship with her older sister. So she makes a wish that she could tell her younger self never to go out with him and she drops her phone into a mall fountain right after her wish. Her phone stops working but somehow she's able to call herself in the past. The whole idea of the book sounded pretty awesome, but I didn't really like Devi sometimes, she seemed pretty shallow, and she makes her poor past self do all her dirty work, while in the future she doesn't have to do any of it, just reap the benefits. Overall though it was a cute story, and I think Devi learns that looking back and regretting things just isn't the way to live. You have to live in the moment and enjoy life. If you want a light read this one would be a great choice.

Reading Now:

One Land, One King by Y.S. Hassan

I won this book on Goodreads a couple months ago. It's interesting so far, and I'm loving how big a role the land plays in this book actually. Everything happens because it is 'the will of the land.'

Books I Want to Read This Week(...or Maybe Next Week Because of Exams):

The Candidates by Inara Scott

I won this book from Once Upon a Twilight during their Halloween giveaway event with Good Choice Reading. I'd been wanting to read The Candidates for a while, so I was so stoked to win a copy...and I can't wait until I'm done all this studying and test writing, so I can dig into this baby. :D

The Julian Game by Adele Griffin

This is another book I won that I've been anxious to dig into. I won this one from Julie at A Tale of Many Reviews. I'm hoping that I can manage to read a little of this one or one of these other awesome books during my study breaks. ;)

Zombie Blondes by Brian James

I love zombies!...so as you can imagine I'm super anxious to dig into this one. I won this one on Book Rat. And it's also signed to me, and it says 'Keep eating those brains.' Will do...will do ;)

Saturday, December 11, 2010

I wasn't actually planning on reviewing anything for a bit, but I just finished this awesome book, and I really wanted to share my thoughts with you all. :)

I absolutely loved The Replacement. It was completely different than anything I've ever read, sure it had certain elements that were similar, but overall it was pretty unique.

The setting was incredibly established and it was done in a beautiful way, Brenna certainly has a way with words. I loved how the story seemed to unveil because no one really wanted to face the truth and they were all so happy just pretending like nothing was out of the ordinary. Such an oblivious town, and so many secrets.

I loved Mackie! He's such an intriguing character and I loved seeing his side of this story. Emma was amazing too, I loved the relationship between her and Mackie, so awesome. All of Mackie's friend were hilarious or just plain epic, and although they may not have had much dialogue or a huge role in the story they were all always there for Mackie and they're the type of friends anyone would want in their corner. And Tate, man she makes me wanna go out a punch someone if they ever mess with me, she is the perfect example about how girls don't always have to be docile and catty. She's one female character that we should all be looking up to, and I'm not saying that we should be violent, but we should stand up for ourselves and those we love, and we should accept others for who they are...even if they are a little strange. ;)

Overall, I thought that The Replacement was a fantastic story, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes stories that are fantastical, and a little eerie...especially if you like to look for truth among secrets and ignorance. :)

If anyone else has read The Replacement, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

And if you haven't read it yet, are you thinking about reading it? Why or why not?

Thursday, December 9, 2010

So I've been pretty busy lately with the end of the school semester coming up, and finals within the next week or so. I haven't had much time for blogging, which is why I've been trying to get a couple memes up every week, that way you guys know I'm still here. :)

Sorry if you've been missing me. But, I'm probably going to be pretty busy for the next couple weeks too, but I'm going to try and write a couple reviews so that it won't be a totally empty week.
I'm also here to announce some giveaway hops that I plan on participating in during the next couple of months! So make sure you stop by the blog to enter those when the time comes because I plan on all of them being international!
I haven't decided what I'm giving away on any of them yet, but I know it'll be books, I'll make a sneak peak post once I decide on prizes :D

These pictures are just to make this part of the post more fun, and I totally watched The Little Mermaid today :)

Ok, so the first one I'm planning on participating in is called the 2011 New Year's Smash Blog Hop and it's hosted by Babs at The World of Book Reviews, it'll run from January 1st to the 3rd, with winners being posted on the 4th. If you want to sign up for this one too you've got until December 27th.

And the last giveaway hop that I'm participating in is the Valentine's Day Books With Love Giveaway Hop hosted by Once Upon a Twilight and Good Choice Reading. It runs from February 14th to the 16th. And if you want to sign up to host a giveaway on this hop you've got until January 31st.

So those are the giveaways that you can expect from me for the next couple of months, oh and also a possible CSN gift code giveaway, not sure when that will be though. I'm gonna go read some more though because I don't have much time before I have to start massively studying for my Russian final. haha

Disclosure:

All content on this blog is my own, unless otherwise stated. I will always cite where I have gotten something from, and will mention where my inspiration is from if there is any and ask permission beforehand. If you are borrowing any content from my blog, or have been inspired by my posts, I ask you the same courtesy. The blog design, including the header, background, blog buttons, and link buttons have all been created for me by KD Designs. All books reviewed on my blog are either my own purchases, gifts from family or friends, or have been received from authors or publishers for an honest review. All reviews are my own, as are my thoughts. I do not receive any compensation for my reviews.

Thank you for visiting Burning Impossibly Bright, and I hope that you enjoyed your stay. :D